Hasta La Gadget!

I must say, legendary artist and producer Dr. Dre have certainly made good for himself in terms of his business acumen, and starting the Beats brand with Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine has proved to be one of his masterstrokes. Well, the company continues to march onward by announcing their spanking new Beats Pill. No sir, the Beats Pill is not something you pop to drown out the tunes of commercially appealing pop from manufactured boy bands, but rather, it comes across as a portable wireless speaker that boasts of built-in patented Beats Audio. Needless to say, expectations tend to run a little bit higher than normal when there is the Dr. Dre name associated with a particular device, no?

Beats By Dr. Dre President & COO, Luke Wood, said, “The introduction of the Beats Pill and the Executive is the perfect beginning to a truly autonomous Beats as we transform into a freestanding consumer electronics company this year. These products demonstrate our total commitment to design, technological innovation and premium sound experience.”

The Beats Pill Wireless Speaker ensures that the company’s mantra of “sound is king” remains on a pedestal at all times. Audio engineers have made sure that the Beats Pill will live up to such a mandate, starting from careful placement of the drivers to the materials of the grill, where it was specially designed to optimize sound quality and maximize volume. Not only that, the Beats Pill is the first product of its kind to be fully integrated with the company’s patented Beats Audio algorithm, while boasting exclusive speaker modules that are able to provide the highest quality portable listening experience.

Another first registered by the Beats Pill would be the fact that it is the first wireless speaker to come with tap-to-pair NFC and apt-X technology for easy and instant Bluetooth audio, now how about that for technological advancements? With a rechargeable lithium ion battery that offers up to 7 hours of non-stop playback on a full charge, the $199 Beats Pill does seem to sound (pardon the pun) to be the ideal companion for the mobile music lover.

Press Release
[ Take a Chill (Beats) Pill copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

First, Jabra brought us the Solemate, a Bluetooth speaker that looks like a shoe. Now, Beats by Dre, purveyor of fashionista friendly headphones, has introduced us to the Pill. It looks—you guessed it—like a giant gelcap. And its Bluetooth sound sure could use a spoonful of sugar. More »

It’s official. Aside from letting loose its first set of headphones post-Monster for the Executive types, Beats Electronics has set its sights on nabbing the portable Bluetooth audio crown from Jawbone’s Jambox. You’ll recall this hitting the FCC a bit ago, but today the Dr. is officially ready to offer you it’s remedy for on-the-go wireless audio with its $200 Pill, an NFC-equipped portable Bluetooth 2.1 speaker. Coming in your choice red, black or white, the cylindrical system is loaded with a quartet of 1-inch drivers, and supports codecs including Apt-X and AAC. An internal battery is said to provide about seven hours of listening at around 75-percent volume (80 decibels), and the unit can be charged via its Micro-USB input. Notably, an auto-off feature turns the unit off after 30 minutes if no audio is streamed to it. As you’d expect, the Pill features a front-facing on-board mic for use as a speakerphone, physical volume buttons and power button, as well as a 3.5mm input if you’d like to play sans Bluetooth. We’re also pleased to notice that the diminutive system also features a 3.5 output if you’d like to send the audio out to another audio ware. The Pill comes with a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, a USB to Micro-USB cable for charging with an included wall adapter and, lastly, a carrying shell case that can be hooked to a bag.

We’ve been able to spend about an hour with the system, and we’ve frankly come away very impressed. The unit feels very sturdy, with a stiff metal grille and soft-touch coating around the rest of its exterior. It feels very comfortable to hold in a hand, and will easily fit in a jacket pocket. Actually, one of our only initial complaints is that the included carrying shell doesn’t leave any room for the included cables. All of the buttons have a soft, slightly clicky tactility, which also aids to its premium feel. Using it initially alongside one of Beats’ on-hand Jamboxes in a wired A/B comparison, the Jambox came out sounding like a distorted, rumbling mess up against the pill — we even had a rep bring out a second unit confirm that it wasn’t a dud. If that wasn’t enough, the Pill also managed to get much louder, staying fairly clean (in comparison), and without rumbling on the table as the Jambox did very slightly. As a triple-check measure, we later came up with a similar outcome with our in-house unit of Logitech’s $99 UE mobile boombox — a speaker we find comparable in sound, if slightly better, than the Jambox.

In what could be viewed as slightly ironic, the Pill has a voicing that edges toward the flatter side of things, rather than pumping out exorbitant amounts of bass. It’s not to say that it can’t reproduce bass at all, it’s just not the focus here. This flatter output seems to be a big part of what keeps it from distorting, but we should be clear, that the audio here is many times better still on the Pill. Pleasantly, the speakers are also angled up slightly, which makes for a noticeably more natural listening experience. Our only other concern for the time being is that the Bluetooth connection with our iPhone 5 did crackle occasionally like a vinyl record, but it’s too early to say if the issue will be consistent during future use. We’re still a ways off from being able to definitively give you a thumbs up on the Pill, but — at least, initially, it seems like it’s easily blowing the Jambox and similar speakers out of the water. Like the Executive headphones, the Pill is available today at Beats stores and other retailers — check out our video hands-on after the break for a better look.

Continue reading Beats by Dre Pill portable Bluetooth speaker officially drops, we take one per the Dr. and go ears-on (video)

Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Portable Audio/Video

Beats by Dre Pill portable Bluetooth speaker officially drops, we take one per the Dr. and go ears-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Beats by Dr. Dre badge has usually been attached to headphones and the occasional laptop or smartphone. We’ve never really seen it attached to dedicated speakers, however, and that’s where both an FCC filing and a sighting at UK retailer HMV’s online store raise a few eyebrows. The House that Dre Built appears on the edge of launching the Beats Pill, a Bluetooth wireless speaker with four drivers and a shape that more than explains the medicinal name. While we don’t know just how much of that signature Beats thump we’ll get, we do know from the FCC that the Pill can serve as a speakerphone, carries an aux-in jack and will last for a typical 8.5 hours on its USB-rechargeable lithium-ion battery. There’s also signs of a red version of Beats’ Mixr headphones coming at the same time. HMV has publicly scoured its pages of any trace of a ship date or price for the Pill, but cached copies point to a £170 ($276) price and a release around September 28th — not necessarily trustworthy figures, but they may be in the ballpark. Our only question is whether or not we’ll get a dose of the Pill in the US.

[Thanks, Germaine]

Filed under: Peripherals, Portable Audio/Video

Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker spotted at FCC and HMV: take one and call Dr. Dre in the morning originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  FCC, HMV (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments